A conventional projectile propelling system, such as a firearm or a paintball marker, is able to fire or launch ammunition continuously as long as the ammunition is available. Ammunition, for example, can be bullets for hand guns or paintballs for paintball guns. To enhance firing power, a type of projectile propelling system employs a magazine which houses more ammunition. A conventional magazine, for example, is a container loaded with ammunition in such a way that, when the magazine is attached to a firearm, the ammunition in the magazine can be sequentially loaded to a firing chamber of a launcher by a loading mechanism before launching.
For an automatic or semi-automatic firing apparatus, a projectile chamber is fired when a trigger is pulled. As soon as a projectile is fired, a retract mechanism of a firearm, for example, reloads the next projectile or bullet from the magazine for the subsequent firing. As the firing speed increases, more ammunition is needed to maintain the firing power. When ammunition in the magazine depletes, the projectile propelling system stops firing until the empty magazine is replaced with a fully loaded magazine.
To supply and provide sufficient amount of ammunition, users or operators usually carry multiple loaded magazines with a finite amount of ammunition such as bullets or paintballs in each magazine. When ammunition inside a magazine depletes, the user replaces the magazine by removing the empty magazine from the projectile propelling system such as a gun and reattaches a fully loaded magazine before a projectile can be fired. Projectile propelling is interrupted or halted during the process of replacing a magazine. To minimize firing interruption from magazine replacement, reducing the frequency of magazine replacement as well as minimum effort of magazine replacement is essential.
A conventional bottom mounted ammunition magazine includes a single column of ammunition such as paintballs with a single supply port. When the single column of ammunition is exhausted, the magazine needs to be replaced. A problem associated with such a conventional ammunition magazine is that it holds a limited amount of ammunition or projectiles.